Deflation, disorder, development (and its demise), democracy (ditto) and dystopia.

Monday, August 25, 2003

Remember back to 1996 when Boutros Boutros Ghali was not-so-subtly nudged out of his post as Secretary General of the United Nations (technically, ineligible for another term due to a US veto) and replaced at the behest of Bill Clinton by the much more amenable Kofi Annan? Looks like the US really knew what it was doing.

Mr Boutros Ghali, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House yesterday, said the UN was perceived as an extension of the US state department.

"Many countries of the third world see a basic discrimination adopted by the United Nation system," he said. "The resolutions which are not respected by the Iraqis deserve the bombing of Baghdad. The same resolutions which are not respected by the Israelis deserve nothing.

"So the perception in a great part of the third world is that the United Nations, because of the American influence or because of any other reason, is a system which discriminates [against] many countries of the third world." . . .

Mr Halliday [Fred Halliday, former UN assistant secretary-general], meanwhile, said the UN security council had been taken over and corrupted by America and the UK.

"The UN has been drawn into being an arm of the US - a division of the state department," he said. "Kofi Annan was appointed by the US and that has corrupted the independence of the UN. The UN must move quickly to reform itself and improve the security council. It must make clear that the US and the UN are not one and the same."